RockBats Wood Quality Assurance - and broken bats

For RockBats to remain the only wood bat company that offers
a Wood Quality Assurance on their bats - we need to sell our
bats at the Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP).

Our Wood Quality Assurance says that we are supplying a
RockBat that has true professional-quality wood. True
professional quality wood means that the wood grain in the
handle portion of the bat meets 3-degrees. We created this
slope-of-grain standard, and it is now a required wood standard
in all maple bats used in the Pros.

What if you've broken your RockBat?....
First and foremost, we need to determine if your RockBat hadstraight-grain wood. We do this 2 ways:
(1) we need to see a close-up and in-focus photo of the ink spot
on the handle - did the bat have straight-grain wood?
and (2) HOW did the bat break? If the
wood grain has BAD slope-of-grain, then it will break by the
classic OVAL-SHAPE break, like in the photo below.

What does not factor into this broken-bat evaluation
is the circumstance - and we have heard them all....

..."my bat only lasted 1 game... 3 games... 10 at-bats"....
"I hit it right on the sweet spot, and it broke"...
"I've had wood bats that lasted me all season"... "I
thought this had a 3 month warranty? 30-day
warranty?"... "we were only doing soft toss
and the bat broke"... "the pitcher was only
pitching 50 mph"... "I didn't save the bat,
but it had the OVAL-SHAPE break"...
and the list goes on.

The short summary about broken bats... "hitting
AWAY from the sweet spot is what breaks bats".
And only bats with the BAD slope-of-grain will break by the
classic OVAL-SHAPE.

So, the only bats that we replace are those that show the
classic OVAL-SHAPE break.

And this is very important to understand - all
wood bats may break if hit significantly away from the sweet
spot. So the only thing we look for in a broken bat is HOW
it breaks.

Conversely, any bat may break because the ball hit
significantly away from the sweet spot. In the video
below, a bat with extremely BAD slope-of-grain was hit on the
sweet spot - and it did NOT break. The hit was then
shifted down a few inches (about 5") - and the bat with
extremely BAD slope-of-grain wood does break by the classic OVAL-SHAPE. Be sure to also watch the stress videos at the
bottom of this page... it explains stresses in the bat
handle due to hits ON the sweet spot, and AWAY from the sweet
spot.

Just as
important to understand is that there are so many OTHER
types of bat breaks - Rupture, Crack, Split, Brash,
and even those that split up into the barrel...
those are all indicators that we DID provide straight-grain
wood in the 18" portion of the handle. And, once
again, the bat broke because the ball hit significantly away
from the sweet spot - i.e. the bat did not break
due to wood quality.

The
following 3 videos show the stresses in the bat handle,
due to ball contact on the barrel. Note that mis-hits
away from the sweet spot cause high stresses in the
handle - this is what breaks wood bats in the handle.

======================

Explanation of "professional-quality" wood

To meet "professional-quality", the wood grain in the 18"
handle region must be straight grain at an angle of no more than
1" in 20" of length. The graphic below shows that 1" in
20" (1:20) calculates out to be 2.86-degrees, which is
approximately 3-degrees.

======================

What if I did not pay MSRP?
(what if I got a discount price on my RockBat?)

If you purchased your bat at a
discount price, and you did get the OVAL-SHAPE break -
simply pay the difference between your discount price,
and the full MSRP - and you will get a replacement.

What if I did not buy my
bat from RockBats.COM?

All RockBats fall under the
quality assurance, but we do need to see proof of
purchase. There will also be a $20 processing
fee, and customer pays for shipping of a replacement
bat - IF it is determined that the break is a
replaceble bat.

Finally, here are some examples of bat breaks that did
NOT get replaced...

Cracked and split toward the center... see the stair-step
break... this is NOT OVAL SHAPE.

Shattered/Spintery - this is the classic "rupture" break and
can only happen if the wood is straight-grained

Shattered/Spintery - even if the bat is further broken into
multiple pieces, the shattered portions indicate straight-grain
wood.

Softball bat: the next batter picked up the
player's bat at home plate, and tossed it back to the dugout -
the bat landed on it's knob.

See the ink spot - that indicates straight-grain.
Breaks can shoot up into the barrel, but that is not the
OVAL-SHAPE in the handle.